In The Order Of Things, Michel
Foucault quoted Jorge Luis Borges who quoted a certain Chinese Encyclopaedia,
which grouped "animals" as follows:

a) animals which belong to the
emperor
b) embalmed animals
c) tamed animals
d) milk sows
e) sirens
f) fabulous beasts
g) dogs without a master
h) those which belong into this grouping
i) those who behave like mad
k) animals painted with a very fine brush of camel hair
l) and so forth
m) animals which have broken the water jug
n) animals which look like flies from afar.

This definition movitivated Foucault to write the
book, which he said "first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the
laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of
thought - *our* thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our
geography - breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which
we are accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things and continuing
long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old definitions
between the Same and the Other."

Now I have no idea what this so-called
Chinese Encyclopaedia could conceivably
be except that it was surely someone's practical joke. In any case, I like
reading lists and trying to figure out the logic behind why the items in the
list are collected together.

It is an open secret that all Chinese
Internet hosting services, including wireless and instant messenger
services, filter user communication through key word blocking mechanisms.
But overly vague
and broad Chinese internet laws and the internet police force never
made the forbidden words explicit -- Not until some Chinese hackers located
a document within the installation package of QQ
instant messaging software. The file contains over one thousand words, most
of them in Chinese, which will be blocked by the service.

Owned by Tencent,
QQ is China's most popular Instant Messenger service. On a regular basis,
tens of millions of users use their service. On
one day, March 13 , there were more than six million users online
using QQ at the same time. Because of its high traffic volume, it is
technically much harder to build in the key word filtering mechanism on the
server's end. Instead, Tencent sneaked in a filtering program file in their
installation package at the client end. When a client installs the QQ2003
software on their own computer desktop, a program file, called
COMToolKit.dll, is automatically included. This file contains all the
forbidden keywords, which will be automatically blocked when the client runs
QQ.

Recently, some Chinese hackers located this
file and released
it on the Internet. The censored key words list is commonly used not
just for QQ, but also for all websites, BBS and text messaging services.

The entire list is then provided at China
Digital News. And
what a fascinating list! I could spend days just trying to classify and
rationalize the system! And there are in fact quite a few things that I
don't even know! This is a wonderful way to expand my politico-cultural
indoctrination.

The table below contains some quick groupings of the list
items that I know (which guarantees that this page will be inaccessible in China
if the filters are really working). On the whole, I would have to say that filtering is a
losing cause. There are so many variations that can be played in the
Chinese language that this static .dll file will be beaten with ease (for
example, see the list of improper variations on the names of officials -- I
know I have even nastier variations in mind).
The only hope is to require users sign in with their IDs, record their entire
sessions and then threaten them that any transgression will be punished
eventually when the new workarounds are detected and all their previous
sessions will be retroactively re-examined.

Postscript: China
Herald noted that this page could be read without any problem in
Shanghai, while the page at China Digital News was blocked. If true, then only URL blocking was in place (and this site was not banned
whereas China Digital News was) and keyword filtering was not working. Why is my URL not banned in China? It ought to be because it carries quite a
number of banned articles in English translation alongside their full Chinese
originals which cannot be seen inside China. This website may be too small to come to the
attention of Internet Nanny and this is the way to beat the system because
even the 30,000 censors cannot humanly screen out something that appears
simultaneously on 1,000 out of tens of millions of small websites with
billions of web pages around the world.

Post-postscript: On further thought,
this list must be for used only for filtering wireless and instant messaging
only. There are some terms that are in the mainstream discourse, such as
the 两会:
the National People's Congress and the National Political Consultative
Conference. If these terms are used to filter web pages including
official communications, the government would grind to a halt.

Terms not on the list: rape, sodomy, bestiality, fisting, cunilingus, dildo,
vibrator, pedophilia, penis enlargement, golden shower, bondage,
sexually transmitted disease, venereal disease, syphilis, ... we
report and you decide if these other terms are permitted or just not
done in China.

Technical note:
The national curse phrase is 肏你媽個B
("Fuck your mother's cunt"). The exact phrase would be
easy to ban, so the workaround includes substituting 肏
with 草操糙曹嘈槽懆襙
etc which all sound like the same cao sound and substituting B
with 逼必比筆畢避閉彼辟臂鼻壁斃碧鄙幣弊妣庇婢璧彼etc.
For example, 肏你媽個B
is
rendered as糙你媽個碧.
This means that the list would have to contain many combinations.
So the efficient solution is to key on the two words 媽個 ("mother's")
that appear in the middle of the phrase and not worry about the header
and trailer. This means that 肏你馬個B
with 馬
substituting for 媽should go through
like a breeze.

For
the English-only reader, here are some literal translations:江猪媳
'Chairman Jiang'
is rendered as 'Pig Daughter-In-Law Jiang'酱猪媳
'Chairman Jiang' is rendered as 'Soy-sauce Marinated Pig
Daughter-In-Law'僵贼民'Jiang
Zemin' is rendered as 'Stiff Rogue Person'猪聋畸
'Zhu Rongji' is rendered as 'Deaf and Deformed Pig'毛厕洞
'Mao Zedong' is rendered as 'Mao Shithouse Hole'李月月鸟'Li
Peng' has the ideogram for Peng broken up into its three component
characters: Moon, Moon, Bird.

Cultural exchange:
In the United States, it is sufficient to simply say "Bush" to
insult the president because the term refers to a clump of pubic
hair. Per Molly Ivins' book titled Shrub : The Short but Happy
Political Life of George W. Bush, some people refer to the president
as "Shrub" instead as a sign of his dim-wit. During the
Republic National Convention, the bestselling slogan on the streets of
New York City is: "No Bush, No Dick" where Dick refers to Vice
President Dick Cheney as well as to a penis.

This is a
list of items that are not banned in official media. In fact, they
are the pillars of the system. Why should the mention of these
items be banned in IM? Because there is no guarantee towards which
direction a discussion may head, so it is better to ban all discourse as
a precaution. This is where the absurdity of the censorship
becomes most obvious, and it must be distressing to even and especially
the true believers of the system.

三个代表"Three
represents", a political theory advocated by Jiang Zemin who said:
"the Party must always represent the requirements of the
development of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of
the development of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental
interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in
China." The media expounds on the theory, but the people
can't talk about it or even praise it because of the possibility that
someone might criticize it.

两会 The National
People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference. The events are covered by all the media, except the
people can't talk about it or even praise it because someone else just
might criticize it.

公安Public
security. No, if a crime occurs such as a 走私
(smuggling) case, you can't even advise someone to call the police
immediately. That's because they couldn't tell that legitimate
situation (good) from someone else criticizing the police (bad).

消防队 Fire
brigade. If you see a fire, you can't send a message for the fire
brigade just in case you might be criticizing them.

真相 The
truth. You are not permitted to talk about the truth about
anything, just in case your idea of the truth is not politically correct
in accordance with the current line. [Note: This may also be
a reference to the series of books published by Mirror Books]

江澤民;李鹏;胡锦涛;温家宝;鄧小平Jiang
Zemin, Li Peng, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiaobao and Deng Xiaoping are not to be
invoked, just in case their names are used in vain. You can't even
praise them.

中俄边界 The
Sino-Russian border does not exist.

西藏 Tibet
does not exist.

中国孤儿院;上海孤儿院
The Chinese Orphanage and the Shanghai Orphanage do not exist.

天安门 Tienanmen
Square. This is the most famous street block in China.
Sorry, you can't even tell anyone about your pilgrimage there to watch
the flag-raising ceremony at dawn. This is a tacit acknowledgement
that the place is indebily linked to that event on June 4th, 1989.

在十月 Nothing
ever takes place in the month of October.

On
that last item, imagine the following IM exchange:
P1:When is your baby due?
P2:In October.[filtered]
P1:Please reply?
P2:I just did.
P1:No, I didn't get a reply. Please re-send.
P2:In October.[filtered]
P1:Please reply?
P2:I just re-sent it.
P1:Fuck his mother's cunt! It must be Internet Nanny![filtered]

Comedian George Carlin had seven dirty
words you were not allowed to say on television. Tencent, maker of the
popular instant messaging programme QQ, has more than 1,000 it does not want
broadcast in cyberspace.

Last month, a group of hackers uncovered a
file buried within the operating instructions of QQ 2003. The file contains
a list of words likely to rile government officials.

About 20 per cent deal with sexual jargon
too rude to print in a family newspaper. For Chinese-language students
looking to expand their vocabulary of naughty words, this .dll file is a
good place to start. (Users of QQ 2003 should search for a document called
COMtoolkit.dll. Newer versions of QQ's program lack the file).

The remainder of the list deals with
politically touchy subjects. In the file, not surprisingly, are topics such
as Falun Gong, the Tiananmen Square massacre and the independence movements
in Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet.

But the file also hints at concerns about
the Web being used to spread ultra-nationalism, with references to the
Sino-Russian border and territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands.

Many of the words are general, such as
"truth" and "idea", suggesting philosophical discussion
is off-limits. Other words include references to official corruption and the
cases of political prisoners.

Why some phrases appear on the list -
"in October", "spring in Beijing", "toad" and
"North Korea" - are a complete mystery. [Blogger's
note: "Spring in Beijing" is a overseas Chinese-language
pro-democracy magazine; see Beijingspring.com].

What is also not clear is how the .dll file
works. It does not appear to block words from instant messages, suggesting
its purpose is to alert officials to the discussion of sensitive topics.

Mainland internet users are aware of what
critics have dubbed The Great Firewall of China, leading to the creation of
new spellings for names and terms to bypass the censors.

The artfully insulting homonyms include
spelling former premier Zhu Rongji's name so that it reads deaf and deformed
pig. Chairman Jiang becomes soy sauce marinated pig daughter-in-law, while
Mao Zedong's moniker is transformed into a vivid description of a toilet.

As the censors catch on, internet users are
forced to come up with ever more inventive spellings.

Head of Human Rights in China Xiao Qiang
said: "There are constantly new subjects and topics being banned by the
government and [internet] users need to come up with new key words or
phrases for these topics."

But despite the best efforts of Tencent,
which did not respond to requests for comments, and other companies which
aid government efforts to control discourse, Mr Xiao believed the internet
had set China on a course from which it could not turn back.

"While the overall censorship is still
effective, the Net has already created a bottom-up force and is constantly
negotiating this new space with the old style, top-down censorship and
propaganda regime," he said. "The transformative effect of the
internet has already set China on an irreversible course towards greater
openness and public participation in social and political life."

The Washington Post obtained a list of keywords used by a Chinese blog service provider to flag offensive material. Of 236 items on the list, 18 were obscenities. The rest were related to politics or current affairs.

Most words on this list can be posted on Chinese Web sites, but their presence quietly alerts editors to examine the messages that contain them and possibly take action. In tests, postings that included long sections of the list were allowed to remain on several sites, but quickly removed from others. One site also blocked the computer used to conduct the tests from posting anything else.

In addition, on most sites, at least some of the sensitive phrases cannot be posted at all. Depending on the site, filters replace the offending words with asterisks or block the entire message.

Below is the list. Obscenities have been withheld.

Names of People

Bao Tong

Chen Yonglin

Cui Yingjie

Ding Jiaban

Du Zhaoyong

Gao Jingyun

Gao Zhisheng

He Jiadong

He Weifang

Hu Xingdou

Hu Yuehua

Hua Guofeng

Huang Jingao

Jiang Mianheng

Jiang Yanyong

Jiang Zemin

Jiao Guobiao

Jin Zhong

Li Zhiying

Liang Yuncai

Liu Jianfeng

Liu Junning

Liu Xiabo

Nie Shubin

Nie Shubin (repeated)

Sun Dawu

Wang Binyu

Wang Lixiong

Xu Zhiyong

Yang Bin

Yang Dongping

Yu Jie

Zhang Weiying

Zhang Xingshu

Zhang Zuhua

Zhao Yan

Zhou Qing

Zhu Chenghu

Zhu Wenhu

Zi Yang (in English)

Ziyang (in Chinese)

Ziyang (in English)

zzy (in English, abbreviation for Zhao Ziyang)

Chinese Politics

17th party congress

Babaoshan

Beat the Central Propaganda Department

Blast the Central Propaganda Department

Block the road and demand back pay

Chief of the Finance Bureau

Children of high officials

China liberal (in English)

Chinese Communist high officials

Denounce the Central Propaganda Department

Down with the Central Propaganda Department

Impeach

Lin Zhao Memorial Award

Patriots Alliance

Patriots Alliance (abbreviated)

Patriots Alliance Web

Police chase after and kill police

Pollution lawsuit

Procedures for dismissing an official

Red Terror

Set fires to force people to relocate

Sons of high officials

The Central Propaganda Department is the AIDS of Chinese society

Villagers fight with weapons

Wang Anshi's reform and the fall of the Northern Song dynasty

Specific Issues and Events

Buy corpses

Cadres transferred from the military

Cashfiesta

Cat abuse

Changxin Coal Mountain

China Youth Daily staff evaluation system

Chinese orphanage

Chinese Yangshen Yizhi Gong

Demobilized soldiers transferred to other industries

Dongyang

Dongzhou

Fetus soup

Foot and mouth disease

Fuzhou pig case

Gaoxin Hospital

High-speed train petition

Hire a killer to murder one's wife

Honghai Bay

Horseracing

Jinxin Pharmaceutical

Kelemayi

Linyi family planning

Market access system

Mascot

Military wages

No Friendlies

Prosecutor committed suicide

Pubu Ravine

Shanwei government

Suicide of deputy mayor

Suicide of Kuerle mayor

Swiss University of Finance

Taishi village

Top ten worst cities

Wanzhou

Weitan

Zhang Chunxian welcomes supervision against corruption

Falun Gong

Terms related to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, including phrases from its "Nine Commentaries" manifesto against the Communist Party:

Chinese Communist Party brutally kills people

dajiyuan (in English)

Defy the heavens, earth and nature. Mao Zedong

Epoch Times

Epoch Times (written with a different character)

Epoch Times news Web site

Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party

Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party (abbreviated)

falundafa (in English)

flg (in English)

Fozhan Qianshou Fa

Guantong Liangji Fa

In the Chinese Communist Party, common standards of humanity don't exist

Li Hongzhi

lihongzhi (in English)

Master Li

minghui (in English)

Mother and daughter accused each other, and students and teachers became enemies

New Tynasty TV Station

Nine Commentaries

No. 1 evil cult in the world

Obedient citizens under its brutal rule

People become brutal in violence, Chinese Communist Party

People developed a concept of the Chinese Communist Party, but

People who could escape have escaped, and had people to seek refuge with